Hi evryone, I am new to this site, so a quick intro from myself.
I lived in shields and whitburn until the aged of 17 then joined the navy.
I was thinking about the old wino who used to loiter around the market area and scare the bejeezus out of me when i was a nipper!
Just wondering if anyone else remembers this poor unfortunate.
(sorry if this topic has been covered, but I am the new boy! )

Oh no! Billy Meths dead?
Back in the late 70s Billy was the town's number one entertainer. Cabaret Nite at the Balancing Eel was Billy staring in through the window, shouting and swearing, while the whole pub egged him on. Fantastic.
Sad to hear he's gone.
RIP Billy Meths.

Cheers marra
I haven't seen Shields since 1980 but I still like to look the old place over from afar (Sydney). When I left, most of the shipyards on the river were still working. Sad to see that's changed.
The Chav.

Remember going to the Library and Billy gave me the money and asked me to get him a bottle of sherry from the chemists. When I went to get the bus to Marsden from outside Rippons he was sat on the old church steps next to bus stop and abusing every one who passed.

Billy and his mates used to hang around in the snooker hall in queen street behind woolworths, after going to the shop and getting a couple of bottles of whatever it was and two ounces of "Polony" and they would have a feast upstairs, it was mental trying to play snooker when they were there but it was a right laugh, he used to sleep at one time in the lifeboat near the beach, and we used to call it "Billys Ark", he used to go to stay with the monks in northumberland in the winter, he would come back to shields dressed in a suit and would look smart for a few weeks then get up to his old tricks, when keith Bell used to manage the Angelic Upstarts he would get Billy on stage to introduce the band, the man was a legend, he was from a well to do family, me nana used to know him when he was a kid, i cant think of his surname, but im sure he used to be a good boxer in his day, he was a tough old bloke, and he would be alright with you if you spoke to him and gave him a few bob or a couple of cans.

Cheers Sless ! Billy Roberts, i supose in some respects Billy and people like him can be a bit of a pain, but they are characters all the same, and at the end of the day no one knows how they ended up like that, it dosn't take much to knock ya head a bit skewiff !

Bandana Dave wrote:Cheers Sless ! Billy Roberts, i supose in some respects Billy and people like him can be a bit of a pain, but they are characters all the same, and at the end of the day no one knows how they ended up like that, it dosn't take much to knock ya head a bit skewiff !

In Billy Meths day he was sometimes a bloo*dy nuisance to people yet nobody done him any harm. Nowadays he most probably end up in hospital after being beaten up by some scum for fun like what happened to the harmless character that used to wave at the ships by the Mill Dam. Has anybody been caught for this?
comeonthen

tedster wrote:who was the guy who walked around with the top hat with the feathers in it

Was this the guy who dressed in Victorian clothes. He was a painter called Moore (I think Brian). I bought a painting off him years back. It was still wet and he was selling it to buy more brushes he said. It was an oil painting of fighting galleons. Does anybody remember him.
comeonthen

Ya right, Billy would be beaten up now by the scum, i dont know what it's like in shields now, i've lived down here for 17 years, but it can't be any worse than Selby, it was a brilliant little market town when i came here, now it's the Chav capital of yorkshire, just the other morning i had two pricks banging on my door at three a.m. i had just done a gig in sheffield so i was winding down and still buzzing, i was straight out to tackle them (with my friend, Mr Baseball Bat) but my better judgement took over, you have to look out for yourself these days or the pricks will have ya, i'm ready for them next time, anyways enough of my rants,

these days there arn't many people like Billy about, he was a pain sometimes but it was mostly verbal abuse, and sometimes it was funny stuff, he used to have us in stitches when we used to rehearse in the Lampton, he would call us worse then s*ite, i wish i had a camera, but he was fine if ya bought him a pint or two, he had some great storys ta tell, there's an Irish guy down here called "Paddy the Tramp" who sits beside the Abbey on market days hurling abuse at people,he's a right laugh, he sits outside one of the best posh eating places in town on the bench outside, he gets some right looks when the Rollers, and bentleys pull up on sundays, but the manager just comes out and gives him £20 to go and sit somewhere else, whos the dafty there then ha ha !!

Billy Roberts ( Meths ) was a Great Guy, we used to sit with him and another Vagrant called Spadger ! ( Big Fat Wino's Nose ) ! as i recall under the Huge Pear Tree on Westoe Corner, they'd sing and have a bit of a Crack-On about Everything and Anything. The last time i saw them both together was in a Hospital ward, it was as Funny as F*+k watching them sneaking off for a fag and a Swig of anything they'd just Cadged off one of us . . lol . They were Never any Harm, God Bless the pair of Em . .